These Are the People In Your Neighborhood

This just in from the "No Shit Sherlock" department at King County: There are more overweight people in the suburbs. Please someone, stop the presses.

The Neighborhood Quality of Life Study has released the results of their investigation into urban sprawl, linking a lack of "walkability" in suburban neighborhoods to an increase in body mass index, or BMI. Just 30 minutes a day drops the pounds--a message being pummeled into people by their doctors, newspapers, and talk show health experts.

Most often, Seattlest has apoplexy over pointless research that appears to fatuously perpetrate the obvious. An investigation as to whether "Having an alcohol-induced 'hangover' impairs psychomotor and cognitive performance" for example. Ground-breaking stuff they've got there. But in this case we're at least slightly won over by this study. It includes a small proactive gem of a result, that namely even relatively small changes in "walkability" in a neighborhood lead to demonstrable decreases in BMI for the people in that neighborhood. Go on, walk to the corner store for that 2-liter of Moutain Dew and bag of Ho-Hos.

What concerns us about this study's conclusions, however, is that theyt might inadvertently lend fuel to Mayor Nickel's neighborhood pillaging development fire, as this could be twisted into credence for more Whole Foods/Starbucks/Hair Salon/Soul-Sucking Demon Store megaplexes in what traditionally have been single-family home neighborhoods peppered with family-owned small businesses. Our own Central District is one such target in Nickel's viewfinder right now. We'd much prefer our 6-block jaunt to get a brisket sandwich from R&L Home of Good BBQ over watching our neighbors pack on the pounds strolling around with their Triple Venti Mocha Crappacinos.